One or more of the main characters is the reincarnation of someone from the past, and they are forced to live with the effects of their previous incarnation's life, loves and choices. A device seen in some Shoujo stories, often allowing for a "destined love that survives death" plot element. Also used for a "duty that survives death" plot as well, and thus a good way to set up a character as The Hero. Sometimes allows for Time Travel to previous incarnations in the form of Visions of Another Self.

If you're looking for a reincarnation that occurs over the course of a series, see Back from the Dead. If a character explicitly has the power to reincarnate every time they die, it's Born-Again Immortality.

If you're looking for a Flash game about demons recapturing escapees from Hell, go here.

Can be confused with and is often incorrectly interchanged in fiction with the concept of resurrection: A dead person comes back from the dead in the same body (perhaps complete with a Mortal Wound Reveal) and their original spirit. (A specialty of Jesus in Christianity.) Reincarnation's formal definition is the return to the land of the living with the same spirit but often in a different form than the same body you left behind (as a man rather than a woman, a flea, a sunflower...whatever.) That's the principle found in Eastern philosophy, such as Buddhism. And even then, in Real Life it gets complicated; in Eastern thought, just because one's "pattern" shows up again does not necessarily mean it's "you." (Although many Easterners do believe that.)

Examples:

Tuxedo Mask and all of the earth's senshi aside from Chibi Moon in Sailor Moon. In the manga, Sailor Pluto dies in the future, then reincarnates backwards in time so that her present self can still guard the Time Gate while still helping out. Justified because she was the guardian of the Space-Time Corridor/Gate, a place where Canon already explained that time doesn't flow, so she could reincarnate in any time period.

Setsuna in Angel Sanctuary. The reincarnation may share some similarities with Alexiel but is not exactly alike each also it changes gender randomly.

Dragon Ball loves this trope: Piccolo being the reincarnation of Piccolo Sr. and Uub being the reincarnation of Kid Buu. Interestingly, both of them are good guys, are reincarnations of Big Bads who had epic fights with Son Goku and both had a "rematch" with him in a Tenka'ichi Budokai.

Piccolo Jr. took longer to befriend Goku, because he actually remembered his past life; while never as evil as his previous self, Piccolo Jr. was initially quite ruthless and went through a somewhat prolonged Heel–Face Turn (fueled by two Enemy Mine arcs in a row, and Goku's son as a Morality Pet) after his defeat. He also looks the same as Piccolo Sr. because in addition to being his reincarnation, he's also his clone.

In Uub's case, Goku openly wished that Kid Buu would be reincarnated as a good person as he destroyed him. King Yemma heard the wish and had Kid Buu reincarnated as Uub.

However, Uub is actually not unique in this area. This is how Hell works in Dragon Ball in general; evil people are sent to a personal Ironic Hell until their souls are cleansed of their evil and memories so they can be reborn as a new being. The only reason Freeza is still in Hell is because he's just that wicked and stubborn.

Several major characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! are reincarnations of people from ancient Egypt.

Seto Kaiba is the reincarnation of Priest Seto.

Yugi and Bakura Ryou are the modern-day reincarnations of Pharaoh Atem and Tozokuou Bakura, respectively. Thanks to the Millennium Items, they get to share bodies with their past selves (amicably in the first case, less so in the second).

Priestess Isis and Ishizu Ishtar.

The filler Orichalcos arc adds the implication that Yugi, Kaiba and Jou are also connected to the Knights of Atlantis.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX also features reincarnation, in that Judai/Jaden is the reincarnation of The Supreme King.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL has the Barians, an alien race that fights against Astral, and each one of the Seven Barian Emperors has a past life as a human.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V has eight characters who are the reincarnations of two different people whose souls were both split into four shards.

Himeko and Chikane in Kannazuki no Miko are the reincarnations of the priestesses of the sun and moon. Their story continues even after this series, starting with Shattered Angels.

Eriol Hiiragizawa of Cardcaptor Sakuraand in the manga, the main character's father as well is the reincarnation of Clow Reed. In fact, Eriol's whole purpose in existing was to continue Clow's plans after Clow's death.

It's a major theme in most of them, especially Houou (Karma in the U.S.), but it's actually a key element of Sun's unorthodox plot structure, which keeps flipping back and forth between past and future, with each time period being presented as the protagonist's "dreams". The truth, of course, is that these are two different lives lived by the protagonist, and both the past and the future scenarios are mirror halves of a tale of love, betrayal and redemption spanning centuries, in addition to setting up some of the events seen in the previous volumes.

In Elfen Lied manga epilogue, the twins, young friends of Kouta's daughter, are implied to be the reincarnation of Nyu and Kaede.

In Princess Tutu, Fakir is revealed to be a knight from a fairytale "reborn" to protect his prince, who escaped from the story after the writer died before he could be completed. In the first season, he constantly struggles with trying to live up to the Knight while not having the same end (being torn apart by the claws of an evil Raven). In the second season, he slowly begins to give up on the role to take on his true calling as a writer...of the reality-warping variety. He has a birthmark that looks like a scar from the wound that killed the knight to confirm his identity.

The three younger knights in Prétear are implied to be reincarnations of three knights that were killed during a battle—we see the knights in flashbacks, and although their faces are always obscured they have the same outfits and hair.

The plot of Please Save My Earth revolves around this, and includes a female character who reincarnated male in order to be able to have a happier relationship with the reincarnation of the man she had unrequited feelings for, and two characters who reincarnated into look-alikes of each other. And a man who died many years after the other characters, so he's reincarnated much later and, as a result, he's a child whereas the others are teenagers. Except for one example, they don't look like the characters they reincarnated from.

In one of the final episodes of Sister Princess, sorceress Chikage reveals to her brother Wataru that they had been lovers in a previous life.

All of the high school warriors in Ikki Tousen are reincarnations of the main characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A lot of them wound up in perky girl's bodies, which doesn't seem to affect their bloodthirstiness — or their names — in the least. Of course, one wonders why some of the greatest strategists in Chinese history would bother fighting over the control of Japanese high schools in the first place.

In Otogi Zoshi, set in feudal Japan most of the cast got killed by the middle of the anime. They reincarnate in modern Tokyo. Main characters kept names and basic appearances, but changed haircuts as to be more modern. Not everyone was lucky enough to get reincarnated as humans, through - one of their opponents seems to have become a cat. Or maybe just got a cat named after him.

Three of the four main characters in Saiyuki are reincarnations of gods who died protecting Son Goku (the fourth character).

The main antagonist of Immortal Rain is a soul that has been repeatedly reincarnated over the history of the Earth and remembers every single life leading to some... major mental issues and sparking the plot of the series.

The lesser-known manga Kagerou-Nostalgia is based entirely around the idea of reincarnation. Six heroes are reincarnated as teenagers in order to try taking care of some unfinished business. Given the nature of the setting this sucks for them.

Bleach. When human beings die in the Land of the Living their souls go to the Soul Society (unless they change into Hollows) including Ginjo, Tsukishima and Giriko where they'll either be normal residents of Soul Society until they die again or become shinigami. Eventually they're reincarnated back into the human world.

Gate 7 is a Urban Fantasy about characters of Sengoku era's reincarnations fighting to find the most powerful Oni of the world.

The main basis of Bokura no Kiseki. Not only is the male protagonist, Harusumi, the reincarnation of a princess, Veronica, nearly everyone in his high school class is the reincarnation of someone who was in Veronica's castle when it was invaded and destroyed by a neighboring country. According to the mythos of Veronica's country, all people killed by magic will be reincarnated.

In Ano Hana The Flower We Saw That Day this is the reason why Menma wants to fufill her original wish. Once it is fufilled, she can be reincarnated and can once again belong to the same physical world where her friends are.

The atavists in Inu × Boku SS are said to not be just descendants of youkai, they are essentially a reincarnation of their youkai ancestors. Every time they die, they are eventually reborn in their family, bearing the same name, appearance and even birthday as in their past life. This becomes a plot point when almost all the main cast is killed and we see their reincarnated selves 23 years in the future.

In Nobunagun, the main characters are all reincarnations of important historical figures and are given weapons based on that person's actions and personality. The main character Shio Ogura is a reincarnation of Oda Nobunaga and inherits his love of guns by wielding a BFG.

Everyone in Spirit Circle. The protagonist's first life, Fortuna, caused a disaster that makes him and Koko's soul keep getting reincarnated over and over as enemies. In each reincarnation, they met and befriended many people, and the bond also caused them to keep getting reincarnated around them. In their current life as Fuuta and Kouko, the most prominent characters are all now their close group of friends.

At the end of Part 1 of Dance in the Vampire Bund, Alphonsesacrifices his reputation and his life to save Mina and the Bund. His one wish is to reincarnate into a flower for Mina (whom he's been in love with since childhood) to wear in her hair for a few hours. He gets it.

Naruto and Sasuke are revealed, somewhat unsurprisingly, to be this of the younger and elder sons, respectively, of the Sage of the Six Paths. Likewise, Hashirama and Madara were their previous incarnations. Reincarnation works a little differently in the Naruto-verse, though; it's the chakra patterns of the Sage's sons that they inherited rather than their souls. Which is a very plot-relevant distinction because it allows Hashirama and Madara to be revived as Edo Tensei zombies while Naruto and Sasuke are still alive.

I Wish has K's master be reborn repeatedly as himself, with all his powers intact, due to a curse put onto him.

In Kyou Kara Maou, reincarnation is a normal thing for souls, and usually happens on its own. There are a couple of notable examples, though: Suzanna Julia, Conrad's The Lost Lenore, was a soul deliberately refined through the ages to become the one who would defeat Soushu once and for all in the end. She gave up her life to be reincarnated as Yuuri, the main protagonist. In order to facilitate this plan, Shinou's Great Sage agreed to deliberately reincarnate and keep his memories intact throughout the ages, so he could help guide their plan to fruition when the time came. His latest incarnation is Ken Murata.

Discussed in Private Actress, during one of Shiho's works. She's contacted by a young woman named Kozue Sugiyama whose sister Miyuki was murdered as a little girl, and such an horrible experience DEEPLYtraumatisedher and Miyuki's dad Shigehide. So Kozue hires Shiho to pose as a reinarnated Miyuki; she reasons that if Miyuki was reincarnated right after her murder, she'd be around Shiho's age, so if Shiho "plays" the role of the new!Miyuki well enough, Shigehide will finally be able to let go of his suffer and start properly living again. Not only does Kozue and Shiho's plan work, but it leads Shiho and Shigehide to find the Serial Killer who victimised Miyuki and other people and help to catch him.

Katekyō Hitman Reborn!: It is heavily implied that this is the real reason why the 1st and 10th Generation of the Vongola family resemble each other so much, if Daemon Spade is to be believed. The Generation Xerox is uncanny — they share looks, fighting styles, and in some cases, similar life stories. There literally can't be any other reason aside from divine intervention.

A major part of the Aquarion series. In Genesis of Aquarion, the only reason humanity won a war 12,000 years ago was due to Apollonius and Celiane, two warriors on opposite sides who fell in love and put an end to the fighting. When the same war resurfaces, the human forces are scrambling to find their reincarnations in the modern era. Aquarion Evol takes place another 12,000 years later, with yet another set of reincarnations of those two fighting in another war, and with several side characters implied but never directly stated to be reincarnations of characters from the first series.

Most of the cast of Camelot 3000 are the reincarnations of characters from Arthurian legend.

One of the more significant changes in IDW's incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the role reincarnation plays in their origin. The turtles that became the TMNT, it turns out, were the reincarnations of four Japanese brothers murdered in ancient Japan. Splinter, who like in the original incarnation is a rat-turned mutant, is the reincarnation of Hamato Yoshi, their father, who before being slain prayed for a chance at revenge on their murderers.

Nemesis the Warlock: It's revealed that Torquemada's soul was so evil, it has been reincarnated many times throughout history in various past villains. These include the original Tomas de Torquemada, Adolf Hitler, Maximilien de Robespierre, the Witchfinder General, and John Chivington.

When Death comes for Travis Morgan in The Warlord #14, it is revealed that Morgan is latest incarnation of a long line of legendary heroes. This revelation gives Morgan the resolve to keep fighting and drive off Death.

Raptors: During his travels in India, the vampire Drago was involved with a beautiful woman who was enslaved by a local sorcerer. Drago killed the sorcerer to claim her for himself, but he resurrected into a new body before going after them with a mob of followers. Since this put them both in a stalemate, neither being able to permanently kill the other, Drago relented and agreed to a bargain where he would leave his land for good in return for the woman's good treatment.

ElfQuest: Lehrigen believes this happens to human souls, though there's no evidence of whether this is the case.

Fan Fiction

Has been used as a plot point in DC Nation when it comes to the founding Titans. Dark Angel kidnapped Donna Troy to use as an experiment, sending her through Hypertime in a series of "short, unhappy lives." However, as Donna's incarnations lived, she found other souls with a similar spark to them, and acted as a kind of magnet to keep bringing them together through the centuries and lives.

There's an interesting version of this trope at play. When the G3 universe was created in an attempt to make a utopia, the G1 cast were erased from existence (likely along with others), resulting in the creation of Shadows of Existence (essentially an Empty Shell that is sent to Entropy's realm) while their Light of Existence (their soul) returns to Fauna Luster to one day be reborn. When the G3 World has to be erased, Shadows of Existence begin to fuse with the G3 ponies to form new ponies that live on into the G4 world, effectively making several G4 ponies joint reincarnations of both G3 ponies and G1 ponies, and in some case, G2 ponies (as many G3 ponies were reformated versions of G2 ponies). Twilight is G1 Twilight and G3 Minty (Dark World Minty Pie is the reincarnation of her Light), Rainbow Dash is G1 Firefly and G3 Rainbow Dash, Rarity is one of Princess Rarity who is implied to be a reformated G2 Melody, and Pinkie Pie is one of her G3 self, Princess Rarity (having gotten a part of her during the final moments), and G1 Surprise. Most of them are actually descended from their G1 counterparts as well. From Recursive Fanfiction, Sherlock is G3 Story Belle's reincarnation.

A straighter version is Chrysalis' death. She dies from her wounds after the Final Battle with Cadence, but due to The Power of Love, what little good she had in her is reborn as an innocent zebralicorn filly while all her evil is annihilated from her soul, giving her soul a second chance.

Zecora's religious beliefs include this. Because of this, she has no problem accepting she was Kimono and Mrs. Hackney in past lives.

Inspired by the Pony POV Series, past lives are very important to the plot of Nightmares Are Tragic At least four characters knew each other in earlier lives — some exactly as in the aforementioned series.

Pinkie Pie was formerly G3 Pinkie Pie, and is one of the last survivors of the World That Was Not, from which she derives her Reality Warper powers. G3 Pinkie Pie fought against and was slain by Cosmic Luna, who helped destroy her whole timeline. It is unclear to what degree Pinkie Pie remembers her old identity.

Twilight Sparkle was Age of Wonders stallion fighter-pilot and astronaut Dusk Skyshine, who was the husband of Moondreamer, which becomes important in triggering Princess Luna's Heel–Face Turn and starts Luna Fighting from the Inside against the Nightshadow. It's also implied that Twilight was also G3 Pinkie Pie's best friend Minty.

The first one, Souls Reborn, has the crew (East Blue members only) and various others being the reincarnations of the Konoha 12, the Suna Siblings, and Kakashi, in order to kill Orochimaru for good, who killed all of them one by one in their past lives.

The second one, D Reincarnation, has devil fruit users being reincarnated as ponies in Equestria (known as Devil's Reincarnations), with Pinkie Pie being the reincarnation of Luffy. They are combating against the Devil's Alliance, who are reincarnations of many of Luffy's past enemies who intend to overthrow Celestia and rule Equestria in their own intended image.

Mariabella Fox of Castlevania: Nocturne of Ruin is implied, then actually revealed in chapter 10 to be Maria Renard reincarnated, and can access her past life's magical powers and memories. On top of it all, her resemblance to Maria Renard causes Alucard no small amount of discomfort.

Kamina is reincarnated in Weiss Reacts as Jaune's dad Andreas. It's implied the rest of the Dai-Gurren Brigade were reincarnated as the Arc family and their wives.

In Raven Child's The Smurfette Village series, it is believed that the young Smurflings in the new Smurf Village that appears in the story "How Things Smurf" are actually the reincarnations of the Smurfs and Smurfettes that perished in the old Smurf Village.

Sailor Moon: Legends of Lightstorm: The Sailor Scouts are sent to the future by something called an "Emergency Temporal Shift" performed by Queen Serenity. Because the Legends use extremely advanced science instead of actual magic, the reincarnation is caused by Serenity purposely binding the minds and powers of the Scouts to suitable human zygotes in the future. This is because the energies caused by time travel are deadly, and the Scouts could not survive physical time travel.

Pandora Hearts post-series fics are all this, because the series canonically ends with two of the three main characters being reincarnated. The fanfic Beyond The Winding Road is a notable deconstruction, as Oz, the protagonist, experienced a terrifying childhood where he would switch back and forwards between his past and present identities with varying knowledge of either life, leading to times when he wouldn't recognize his own family or remember his own name. This situation didn't improve until Oz began to reassociate one identity with the other as he got older. Because of this, he was diagnosed with Disassociative Identity Disorder, a label which made his life even more difficult growing up. Also, because he has the face of a deceased famous person, he attracted more than a few unsavory people which his Knight Templar Big Brother Anderson had to chase off.

In A New World, Maribel is Yukari's reincarnation. Byakuren has a brief conversation with Mary as to what this means for her afterlife. Also, Yuyuko notes that Youmu has already left the Netherworld after her death and reincarnated. It's later revealed she was reborn as Lunarian warrior Akiyoshi.

In the Katekyō Hitman Reborn!Fan FicSehnsucht, the main character Reiki Noriko is the reincarnation of the founder of the Cervello Family and Vongola Primo's top adviser, Cervello Cynthia. The fic also briefly touches on the idea that the canon protagonists are the reincarnations of the Vongola First Generation (which was implied in the manga), with Noriko wondering if she is just the only one who remembers their past life.

The Baravadans know all about reincarnation in With Strings Attached. Notably, Brox has been reincarnated as her own grandson. Deliberately.

Ask The New Hope's Peak reveals that Kaede Naegi (no relation to Akamatsu) and Akio Hinata, two children of the survivors from the future, are the reincarnations of Junko Enoshima and Chiaki Nanami respectively.

Films — Animated

Moana: Gramma Tala, the protagonist's grandmother, is shown in the water by the shore with manta rays swimming around her and she says: "When I die, I'm going to come back as one of these. Or I chose the wrong tattoo" then shows her tattoo of a manta ray covering her upper back. As Moana sets off on her quest, Tala dies and immediately a blue, glowing manta ray appears to escort Moana across the barrier reef. Later in the movie, when Moana is suffering her Heroic B.S.O.D., the blue, glowing manta ray returns and manifests as the spectral form of Tala who says "Guess I chose the right tattoo".

The Return of Hanuman is quite different as it doesn't involve death (but quite common in Hinduism); the main protagonist Maruti is the reincarnation of Hanuman.

In ‘’Shinbone Alley’’ a poet named Archy commits suicide and is reincarnated as a cockroach, much to his frustration.

Films — Live-Action

In the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om, Om is reincarnated and looks exactly like he did in his previous life — complete with his tattoo becoming some sort of birthmark.

Dead Again: It becomes apparent that the protagonists are reincarnated spirits of murder victims. It turns out he was she and she was he in the previous incarnation. They're identical to their former selves, too.

The romantic comedy Chances Are has a reincarnated man romancing his own widow.

In the movie Made In Heaven, the protagonist drowns after saving some people. In Heaven, he meets his One True Love. She incarnates for the first time, while he begs Emmett (who specifically says he is not God) and is allowed to reincarnate early to try finding her.

In Fluke, it starts with the main character being reincarnated. It turns out that anyone who dies gets reincarnated - including Rumbo, who'd not only died before the start of the movie, and had been reincarnated as a dog, but then later dies and is reincarnated as a squirrel.

The Mummy Returns makes use of this; O'Connell is the reincarnation of a member of the medjai, Evie is the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess, and Imhotep is brought back by the reincarnation of Akh-sun-Amun.

In the Albert Brooks comedy Defending Your Life people have to go before a panel of judges and prove that they're enlightened enough to move on to Heaven. If they fail to do that, they're sent back to Earth to get it right the next time.

A recurring theme in Cloud Atlas (though it is left ambiguous whether it is real). Also an explicit belief of the Valleysmen in "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After", of the Buddhist priests in Sonmi's era and of the Moriori. Luisa doesn't believe in it at all.

In I Origins, a grad student named Ian Gray is studying the evolution of the eye to stop the Creationists using it as an argument for Intelligent Design. He meets a deeply spiritual girl named Sofi and falls for her. Then she dies in a freak elevator accident. Years later, he marries his lab assistant, and they have a baby. During this time, scanning eye retinas becomes common procedure for IDing people. However, when their newborn's eyes are scanned, they match to a recently-deceased man. This is brushed off as a fluke. Some time later, they take the boy to undergo an autism test, and he appears to pay attention to a specific set of images. When Ian investigates, he finds out that the images are from a documentary done on the life of the same deceased man. His wife suggests the possibility of reincarnation. After testing the eye scans of people he knows, Ian discovers that Sofi's eyes match a girl recently scanned in India. After spending a month tracking her down, he finds her and performs the image test. However, the results are only slightly more than random. As he's taking her back, she freaks out at the sight of an elevator, and he realizes there may yet be some connection to Sofi. The Stinger reveals that the doctor who performed the "autism" test on Ian's son is, in fact, researching this very phenomenon, attempting to match the eyes of famous people to those currently living.

Enter the Void: The concept of reincarnation is mentioned early on by Alex to Oscar. He explains that according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, after someone dies their soul may linger around their old surroundings for a period following their death. Oscar is shot by the police not much later and spends most of the movie as a disembodied spirit. At the very end, after witnessing his sister Linda being impregnated, Oscar experiences being born again. The face of the woman is obscured, leaving it ambiguous whether he is reborn as Linda's baby, or whether his first life is just starting over again.

Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior: Shen is confirmed to be one to one of Mei Song's original companions (her first teacher, the Dragon of Invincibility, in fact), and it's all but stated that Wendy is one to Mei herself. It also means that Wendy is the reincarnation of her great-grandmother, who was the previous Yin Warrior.

Jokes

Sid and Irv make a deal that whichever one dies first will contact the living one from the afterlife. So Irv dies. Sid doesn't hear from him for about a year, figures there is no afterlife. Then one day he gets a call. It's Irv. "So there is an afterlife! What's it like?" Sid asks. 'Well, I sleep very late. I get up, have a big breakfast. Then I have sex, lots of sex. Then I go back to sleep, but I get up for lunch, have a big lunch. Have some more sex. Take a nap. Huge dinner. More sex. Go to sleep, and wake up the next day." "Oh, my god," says Sid "So that's what heaven is like?" "Oh no," says Irv. "I'm not in heaven. I'm a bear in Yellowstone Park."

Three men arrive at the pearly gates but St. Peter says they are full - but they will have the chance to be reincarnated on Earth as whatever they want until room is made. The first says he's always wanted to be a bear. The second says he's always wanted to be an eagle. The third thinks and says "I've always wanted to be a stud." A week later the new rooms are ready and God walks up to St. Peter as asks where the three men are. St. Peter says "One is fishing for trout in a stream in Washington state, one is soaring through the Grand Canyon, and the third is on a snow tire in Alaska."

Literature

Adam R. Brown's fantasy series, Astral Dawn, plays the trope straight in the second novel (The Moment of Creation). Caspian not only learns he has other selves who lived in different time periods prior to his current lifetime, the Defilers are after them. The unlikely hero has to journey backward through time with a team of Keepers to do more than save Heaven; he has to save himself.

A key theme and plot point of The Memory Wars, by Paul Anthony Shortt, in which people known as "reborn" are able to draw on the strength and knowledge of their past lives to aid them.

In The Wheel of Time series, people who become legendary heroes are put on a special track of reincarnation, each life resembling the other and creating its own batch of legends. They hang out in the World of Dreams between lives and are forbidden from interacting with mortals. Everyone else is also reincarnated but are of less central importance to the pattern. The Dragon Reborn is unique in that everyone knows who he is a reincarnation of, when even those who have also lived past lives as great heroes cannot be identified and rarely discover this for themselves.

In Dragaera, reincarnation is a fact of "life." For instance, Vlad is a reincarnation of Kieron the Conqueror's brother, founder of house Jhereg, and Aliera is a reincarnation of his sister. This has the occasionally useful side-effect of allowing Vlad to use the hereditary amorphia-creation powers of Kieron's family, despite now being a different species.

This is the essential theme of Katharine Kerr's long-running Deverry series, which feature a "present day" plot along with multiple parallel flashbacks featuring previous incarnations of the same characters. Later books often include a chart to keep track of them all.

Subverted in that the incarnations tend to have different -occasionally drastically different- appearances. Usually a soul reincarnates regularly as one gender, but to balance experiences, will occasionally show up as the opposite, particularly if a incredibly strong desire fuels it: In one incarnation, Gweniver desires to be a mighty warrior. Her next incarnation is the male Branoic, who is very much that. And woe betide if the character cannot forgive even a vicious enemy; that hate can bind the two souls together as strongly as love. Salamander and Sidro avert this by forgiving each other, when they had good reason to hate; both at the time and in the past.

On Discworld, you are (possibly) guaranteed reincarnation if you die while possessing a potato, though not necessarily a human incarnation. The abbot of the History Monks also practices reincarnation, and in his second appearance (Thief of Time) is a baby. He retains all of his prior knowledge and wisdom; unfortunately, he still has all of a baby's impulses and behaviors.

You don't always have to believe in reincarnation for this to happen. Reincarnation just has to believe in you.

H. Beam Piper believed in reincarnation, and wrote a Paratimenovel examining what would happen if everyone had concrete proof it happened. (One fission bomb was dropped when the paratimers got involved. The general feel was "an interesting place to visit, but unless you can adopt a particularly accepting attitude towards your own death, you wouldn't wanna live there.")

The T'swa in John Dalmas' The Regiment also consider reincarnation a given, and their attitude resembles that mentioned in the Piper example above. Men who regard their own deaths as only a minor inconvenience can be very effective fighters. Reporter Varlik Lormagen adopts some of their ways of thought; a dream he has late in the book suggests that his closest T'swa friend, now dead, will be reincarnated as Varlik's son. And then the book ends with Varlik snuggling with his wife, evidently about to get down to conceiving his friend's next form.

Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan (filmed as I've Been Waiting for You) is of the "past events play out in the present" subtype, but with a strong emphasis on Screw Destiny—the protagonist was one of the girls whose accusations kicked off the Salem witch trials, and she has no intention of repeating the slaughter. Everybody Lives, she redeems herself, and she even winds up dating the reincarnation of Giles Corey.

In An Elegy for the Still-living, Robin claims that he and Francis are reincarnations of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and that they have died and been reborn countless times throughout the ages, possibly as other fictional characters who fall under some of the same archetypes.

In Warrior Cats, Cinderpelt is reincarnated as her own niece, Cinderheart, who was born at the same instant Cinderpelt was killed defending the mother from a badger. She was given a second chance at life because the first time around, she was caught in the villain's trap and injured by a car, preventing her from becoming a warrior. Cinderheart eventually lives Past-Life Memories in her dreams, and realizes who she is.

In Elsewhere, in the afterlife, people are sent to "Elsewhere", where they age backwards until they become babies. They are then sent back to Earth and reincarnated.

Agrojag from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been reincarnated as many different things, and almost all of them died because of Arthur Dent. A rabbit he killed in prehistoric earth and made into a bag, a fly he accidentally swallowed, the bowl of petunias created by the Infinite Improbability Drive miles above the surface of Magrathea, an old man who had a heart attack when he saw Arthur Dent at a Cricket game, a bystander at Stavro Mueller Beta who got nailed by a laser meant for Arthur but he ducked, and a horrific beast who built a temple of hate to Arthur Dent only to be accidentally killed by him again.

The Incarnate Trilogy takes place in a world where everyone is reincarnated after death—except for the protagonist, Ana.

Cloud Atlas pretty much takes this trope and has a field day with it, in which its protagonists are all linked by a Comet shaped birthmark and similar circumstances.

In Shadow Grail, many characters are reincarnations of figures from Arthurian lore. For example, the main antagonist is Mordred reincarnated.

In the Heralds of Valdemar series, all Companions (except the Groveborn) and some Heralds are the reincarnations of previous Heralds. There are a couple exceptions to being reincarnated as a Herald or Companion, however, as when Vanyel's Lifebonded partner Tylendel died, he got reincarnated as the Bard Stefen. The Firecats of Karse are the reincarnated spirits of previous (good) Sons of the Sun (except presumably the Firecat that Bonded with the first Son of the Sun).

In the science fiction novel Nation of the Third Eye by K.K. Savage, reincarnation is a major theme. The protagonist Jac McKay opens his Third Eye and starts remembering his past lives. He and his friends also travel to the astral worlds. There they meet people who are either between incarnations or are already done with the reincarnation cycle.

In The Participants by Brian Blose, 12 immortal observers are reborn into new worlds with new bodies. They are over a hundred thousand years old.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull postulates that birds are constantly reborn into grubby, mundane lives until they learn to transcend mortality through the purity of perfect flight.

In the Christ Clone Trilogy, the Antichrist spreads the belief that people aren't gone forever when they die, but are reincarnated with no memory of their past lives, to excuse the beheading of Jews and Christians, referring to their deaths not as executions, but as "liberations". This is, of course, a complete lie, along with almost everything else he says.

Max Ehrlich's The Reincarnation of Peter Proud is about a California professor who has recurring dreams about the murder of his former self.

In William Sleator's Fingers two teenage half-brothers are the joint reincarnation of a gypsy composer. This is due to the fact that when he died his head and hands were separated from his body. As a result, one of the half-brothers received his musical ability, while the other was gifted with his composing ability.

In The Moon Maid trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the hero of each book is the descendant and reincarnation of the previous: first, the captain of the 21st century space mission that makes contact with the peoples inhabiting the moon; then, a resistance fighter against alien invaders on 22nd century Earth; then, the leader of the force that finally defeats the invaders once and for all in the 25th century; then, in a timey-wimey twist, an American officer in the 20th century who tells the whole story to Burroughs' Author Avatar in the Framing Device. There's a brief hint that his 21st century incarnation's nemesis has a similar condition; during their final confrontation, the bad guy rants that the hero has been thwarting his ambition "all our lives".

A Dog's Purpose follows a dog through multiple reincarnations as different breeds with assorted owners. Eventually coming back to his first owner to be with him when he dies of old age.

Live-Action TV

Lois & Clark had an episode with Superman and Lois Lane as reincarnated lovers (explaining that Superman's soul was from beyond time and distance), and had them time-travel to their past-life bodies to undo an ancient curse.

It even hits the soap operas: one 90's Brazilian soap titled A Viagem, based in spiritist theories, has the main couple being lovers from their past lives, and they fall in deep love again in their actual incarnation. The little fact that they die midway the story didn't stop their affair, as they encounter eachother again in the afterlife by the force of their love.

Speaking of soaps, the original Dark Shadows used this trope heavily, along with every other excuse they could think of to keep casting the same actors in different time periods and dimensions.

The premise of Mada Koi wa Hajimaranai, a dorama series from 1995, where the story revolves around a pair of reincarnated lovers from 200 years ago, and whether or not they'll get together this time around.

Xena: Warrior Princess does this a lot, including a very funny episode where an obsessive Xena fan (played by Lawless) turned out to be the reincarnation of Joxer.

The Minbari of Babylon 5 believe in reincarnation in a semi-closed system where the same pool of souls is constantly reborn. This is a key plot point in several ways. They get it wrong in case of Sinclair, though, whom they assume is the reincarnated soul of their ancient prophet Valen. In fact, due to a Stable Time Loop, Sinclair is destined to go back in time and become Valen, so it is, in fact, the very same soul in the same person.

In The X-Files, the concept of reincarnation was used in several episodes.

In "Born Again", a murdered cop was reincarnated as a little girl who was a bit of a Creepy Child. No wonder, she was channeling his desire for revenge because his murderers were not punished.

In episode "The Field Where I Died", Mulder comes to believe that he was married to a female member of a cult in a past life, and under hypnosis claims to remember not only her but Scully and Cancer Man as reincarnated friends and enemies respectively.

The character who swore revenge came back as a fly in "The List".

In Red Dwarf, Arnold Rimmer claims that in a previous incarnation, he was Alexander the Great... -'s Chief Eunuch.

On Green Acres Eb is missing, and a stray dog shows up. Naturally Lisa thinks the dog is Eb "reincarcerated" ("reincarnation" means when you come back as a flower).

Played for laughs in an episode of Round the Twist, where Linda hypnotises her brother back into a past life in the hope he'll better be able to complete his do-it-or-you're-suspended homework. When his previous incarnation starts trashing the house, she hypnotises the baby she's sitting to his previous life as a wrestling champion, only making things worse. Ultimately its the once Oxford University professor, their chicken, who helps them complete their homework.

Turned up occasionally in Charmed. One episode reveals that the sisters are all reincarnations of their own ancestors. Due to Time Travel, Paige once got in a fight with her own past life. The "looking exactly like your past life" thing is explained to be due to their "souls recognizing each other", making them see each other as their current selves during a past-life regression.

Implied in Seven Days. One episode had a villain with a birthmark under one eye. He got killed, and the episode ends with a shot of a newborn baby with the same birthmark under his eye.

JAG: In "Survivors", a Marine colonel believes his young son to be the reincarnation of a war buddy who died in The Vietnam War. The ending is left ambiguous whether this is true or not.

While not a supernatural series, one episode of Criminal Minds dealt with an Unsub who developed a fascination with reincarnation after learning from his abusive grandfather that a mortally wounded serial killer was placed next to his pregnant mother in the emergency room before she died when he was five years old. Convinced he was the reincarnated form of Smith, the Unsub killed anyone he thought were the reincarnated forms of the killer's victims, leaving behind a sample of animal hair and maggots so that the victims never take their revenge by coming back in animal form. Intending to let himself die in the presence of a newborn baby so that he could be reincarnated, the Unsub nearly gains victory until the baby is taken away and the container holding his larvae spills over his body.

Houdini & Doyle: The subject of the second episode where a boy claims to be the reincarnation of a man who was murdered trying to take revenge on the woman who killed him. It turns out the boy was the man's illegitimate son and the woman was his biological mother who thought he died in childbirth.

The series The Intruders is about a secret society of people who have learned how to recall their past lives and use the knowledge accumulated over many lifetimes for success now.

Music

Ronnie Lane's "Stone" aka "Evolution" tells of a different birth (first person) in each verse.

The song Gonzo sings in The Muppet Movie, "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" can be interpreted as being about reincarnation.

In Dream Theater's Metropolis, Pt. 2 album, the protagonist discovers that he is the reincarnation of Victoria (the girl he has visions of) and the Hypnotherapist is the reincarnation of Edward, who murdered Victoria.

In the video for The Simpsons' "Deep, Deep Trouble" from The Simpsons Sing The Blues, Bart goes to hell and is judged for a suitable punishment. He gets reincarnation, which makes Bart feel relieved, until he realizes that he returns as a snail.

Radio

Parodied in "Fredrickism", a skit by Hudson And Landry about a Scam Religion. When asked if Fredrickism believes in reincarnation, founder Freddie Schultz says they don't need to: if you follow all 26 Commandments then you never die.

Tabletop Games

The Freedom City setting for Mutants & Masterminds has The Scarab, a superhero who was originally the Pharoah Heru-Ra. Like Hawkman, he is destined to be killed by the reincarnation of the priest who killed him the first time, Tan-Aktor, who is currently Overshadow, the setting's Supreme Hydra Captain Ersatz.

Even though In Nomine is set in a War between Heaven and Hell, reincarnation is the default for most of humanity. In the canon setting, mortal souls continue to cycle through the Earth until they either achieve their bright Destiny and reach Heaven or fall to their dark Fate and go to Hell. Souls that somehow achieve both at once go to neither realm, but reincarnate again. Some angels of Destiny have the power to see these earlier lives in order to determine where a soul missed its earlier chances and what its potential may be.

The world of Exalted works under a system of reincarnation, with a person's "higher soul" entering into the spin cycle until it's abandoned all memories of its former life. However, the titular Exalted effectively receive another soul at the moment of their Exaltation, and receive flashes of the life the previous bearer led.

The Alchemical Exalted put a different spin on this: each Alchemical Exalt is created using a higher soul that has proven itself heroic in multiple lives. An Alchemical is basically a whole new incarnation, but incorporating characteristics (and potentially memories) of their previous lives.

Part of the backstory of Warhammer 40,000 is that in humanity's distant past, the first human psykers had the ability to reincarnate, allowing them to accumulate power and knowledge over several lifetimes to continuously protect the human race. However, as civilisation progressed, the Chaos within the Warp grew strong enough that reincarnation became increasingly difficult, to the point where it would have been impossible. The psykers decided to avert this disaster by committing mass suicide and all of them reincarnating into a single body. The person born from this became the God-Emperor.

This explanation was canon in the early editions, but recently, its been changed to just one of many possible theories.

Lucius the Eternal, the Slaaneshi special character, is a strange version; whenever he is killed, his killer slowly turns into Lucius the Eternal, until all that remains of them is just another screaming face decorating Lucius' armor.

Some fluff indicates the Orks believe in this. According to them, "Deff ain't nuffin'. Gork n' Mork'll just spit ye out again!" It might be one of the reasons Orks are Not Afraid to Die. Whether or not this is actually true is not known, but reality does tend to conform to Orky belief...

The almost-forgotten Man, Myth & Magic was based on this. Aim of the game: Reincarnate at least once in every possible Character Class, and remember your incarnations in all of them.

KULT has both reincarnation and a heaven/hell system, a bit like Greek mythology (though rather simpler.)

Reincarnate is a spell in Dungeons & Dragons. It causes a deceased recipient to come back to life in a new body, often of another species (for instance, a human coming back as an elf or orc).

Pathfinder also has a class archetype of druid, called the Reincarnation Druid in the Ultimate Magic core expansion. Once reaching level 5, the character will always reincarnate into a different race a day later. He or she will only stay dead if killed again within 7 days of reincarnating.

Fireborn actually uses this as a core mechanic, interestingly they do this by making you jump between your current incarnation and your previous ones.

It is actually stated in the source books of the game that Reincarnation is part of the draconic life cycle.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: According to a Gagaga Tospedia storyline, the "Dragon Rulers" grow to a certain size, expanding their regions of power against the power of the other Attributes. They perform a cycle of condensing and purifying their energy inside their bodies. And, when each of them reaches their limit, the "Dragon Rulers" unleash their power, and their body, which carried that power, reincarnates into the form of a younger "Dragon Ruler".

In Ironclaw Lutarists believe that everyone is reincarnated while the druids of the Phelan state that some are reborn while most are consigned to oblivion. The 1st edition had rules for characters with past-life memories.

Nephilim in Anima: Beyond Fantasy are basically souls of non-human races that have reincarnated in a human body conserving some of their former traits, including physical ones. It's even stated that starting at puberty they've fuzzy memories of their past life. The game mentions also a Life Stream, where souls go after death before reincarnating.

The One King of Chronopia was slain during an invasion by 3 nonhuman races. Centuries later, he eventually reincarnates to lead the human Firstborn to victory over their enslavers.

Theater

Daisy, the main character of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, is actually the reincarnation of a woman named Melinda Welles, which her therapist discovers when he puts her under hypnosis. Inevitably he falls for Melinda.

In The Adding Machine, it's explained by Lieutenant Charles that souls get recycled until they're worn out, because it's not worth making one just to use it once. Zero has been there at least fifty thousand times before, and each time he went back he got worse.

At the end of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, after Byrne's death, Anjean reveals that while he may not have any memory of what happened, Byrne will eventually return in a new form years later. As a preface to this, Anjean noted that the spirit is persistent, implying that reincarnation applies to the Zelda universe as a whole, which would accord with the numerous instances of recurring characters throughout the series.

The entire main cast in Tales of Innocence. The main character, Ruca, was a general named Asras on one side of a war in Heaven dedicated to capturing the "Souseiryoku" and reuniting Heaven with Earth. Throughout the entire game, the characters explore the distinction between themselves and their past lives, with a climax in which Ruca discovers that two of the other playable characters' old identities betrayed Asras, and goes through a fairly explosive Heroic B.S.O.D. before having to reconcile his friends and comrades with the actions of their previous selves. In the end, he decides to go through with Asras' plan, with all of his allies (including some of Asras' old enemies) helping.

The point translates into gameplay, as every reincarnated person can assume their original form through a process called "Awakening", and each main character's Awakening is their Hi-Ougi.

Of course, the big reveal in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is that Soma Cruz is the Reincarnation of Dracula. The original Aria game left some wiggle room over what that meant, but the sequel solidified it.

Fae and Arasai (an Evil Twinrace) from EverQuest IIall go through this process, so long as their spirit bud remains intact in-between lives.

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories: Rozalin happens to be having some dreams about a blood-smeared battlefield after her sudden departure from her luxurious mansion. These are actually vivid memories of her past life as the real Overlord Zenon. That life comes back to haunt her more than any reincarnation normally should.

In many Nippon Ichi games, reincarnation is a vital tool to power up your Player Mooks, you can even reincarnate the hero but he will still have the same form he did before reincarnating.

Reincarnation is a central theme of the SoulBlazer trilogy, for the hero and the many creatures he interacts with. Blazer is implied to have been reincarnated many times in the service of The Master (Deathtoll calls him a "creature that suffers eternal transmigration of the soul and cannot die"), and Will and his friends reincarnate and meet each other at the end of his journey. Terranigma's Ark has reincarnation play out for him in a horribly depressing way. He is fated to continue the cycle of death and rebirth; resurrecting one world and destroying the other; himself included, each time switching between Light and Dark. It's said that he has done this countless times in countless lives and will continue to do it countless times again.

Souls can be reincarnated in Afterlife, provided they believed in it before they died. This is achieved by chucking them through a glowing portal-nexus-thingy situated halfway between heaven and hell, which in turn is accessible by a special soul train.

Hieda no Akyuu from Touhou. It's part of her perpetual duty to record the history of Gensokyo. She will always be reborn into the Hieda line, with the downside of having a weak body that will only live for ten to twenty years. Her first incarnation, Hieda no Aichi, supposedly penned the Kojiki.

The series embraces Buddhist hells, so Reincarnation is actually an expected occurrence, though the series focuses on exceptional cases such as Mokou and Kaguya (the most perfect form of reincarnation in the series, but also the most impure) or Akyuu (who not only continues to inherit her predecessor's memory and is also born into the same family, but is fast-tracked through a process that should take an uncountable number of lifetimes).

This also comes up in Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit, where title character Kasen has the power to destroy evil spirits outright; the first time she does this, local shinigami Komachi chews her out, saying that sinners are supposed to atone and reincarnate and that it's wrong for Kasen to just take them out of the wheel of life completely. Kasen's attitude is "Like I care", and she's shown smashing more spirits over the course of the manga.

Inhabitants of the Heavens possess a variety of Reincarnation where they can still "die," but will always come back into existence. Background says that Celestials typically have enough strength to fight back against shinigami, which is why they never get carried off to judgment.

Seems to be subverted in Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches, in which the villain evidently thinks all four women named "Rhiannon" are the same person reborn. But if he's right about that, how can the ghosts of the previous three Rhiannons all be simultaneously haunting the home of the current one?

Subverted and played straight in Devil Survivor. The protagonist has the essence of Abel, who himself carried a bit of the huge demon Bel, but so do a bunch of other demons. However, the protagonist's cousin Naoya is the reincarnation of Cain, who remembersevery single lifetime of every reincarnation since he killed Abel. Ironically, God bestowed this upon him as a chance to redeem himself by merely reflecting and atoning for his sin, but after millennia of incarnating, Naoya is understandably far too bitter to even entertain the possibility.

Played straight even further with Hijiri in SMT Nocturne as he is the reincarnation of Aleph (Protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei II), he's forced to witness the struggle between order and chaos for all eternity.

The very first Megami Tensei (which translates to Reincarnation of the Goddess) game involves a reincarnation of Izanami. In fact, she is the goddess the title is referring to.

In Silent Hill 3, protagonist Heather is revealed to be a reincarnation of Alessa, and the baby given to Harry at the end of the first game. There's also Cheryl, Harry's original daughter, who had half of the soul while Alessa spent seven years in near-death in the hospital.

In Agarest Senki 2, all three protagonists are the reincarnation of Chaos, leader god of darkness. The reincarnation happens after you play through the prologue of the game but you don't get to find out until the third generation.

The Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah in Star Control II believe in reincarnation. This is one way they rationalize their genocide of all other life in the galaxy: any life they take will eventually be reincarnated as a Kohr-Ah, so there's no permanent harm done. There's no evidence to show that this is actually the case, however. The Pkunk also believe in reincarnation, and that it's applied to your Captain as well. There is evidence to prove this is the case in this instance, since their ships have a 50% chance of outright resurrecting when destroyed.

In the series' lore, the Khajiit are led by the Mane, the unofficial "head of state". According to Khajiit tradition, the Mane is one entity reborn in different bodies with the passage of time. Thus, There Can Be Only One Mane, and historically, this has proven true as there has been no recorded instance of multiple Manes contending for power.

In Morrowind, the main quest revolves around the prophesied reincarnation of the ancient Chimeri/Dunmeri hero, Lord Indoril Nerevar. The Player Character fits the traits required by the prophesy, but so did many others before. The player character can wear Nerevar's Moon-And-Star ring, which is supposed to kill anyone who isn't Nerevar, but it is strongly implied that the player character might just be a convenient Unwitting Pawn for Azura to get her revenge on the Tribunal for defying her thousands of years ago. Whether or not the player character truly IS the Nerevarine is never made clear. Thanks to the Elder Scrolls series' act of "Mantling", the player character has most likely become the Nerevarine. Mantling makes it possible to become one with another person or deity by, essentially, tricking the universe into thinking that you're that being, generally by filling their role closely enough. By undergoing the same trials and tribulations that the Nerevarine is supposed to do, you've filled his role and have become him.

Mantling is also involved in one theory behind Tiber Septim's ascension as the deity Talos. The theory stats that Septim effectively "mantled" Lorkhan, the "dead" creator god of Mundus, the mortal plane. Between possessing the Numidium and the Mantella (an unimaginably powerful soul gem said to hold the soul of Zurin Arctus/Wulfharth Ash-King/the Underking, all possible Shezarrines), Septim found a way to claim Lorkhan's station in the universe. The Thalmor, who drive much of the plot of Skyrim, want to unmake Talos as a means of destroying Lorkhan and all he created, believing that this will return their spirits to a state of pre-creation divinity.

Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou is about reincarnation. You have to die and reincarnate 9 times in the game, and three of your lives end instantly. There's no penalty if you do happen to die, either.

As can be guessed from the name, it features strongly in Reincarnation. Souls escaped from Hell return to their mortal bodies. The player is tasked with gathering proof that these "reincarnies" are still up to no good, then sending them back to Hell.

In Cursery: The Crooked Man, this is an important plot point that sets up The Reveal of the game: The player's sister Renee, is the identical reincarnation of the Crooked Man's fiancee. His cursed ring triggers her previous life's memories, including the final moments before her death.

In Drakengard 3, Zero's partner Michael, the stongest Dragon, sacrifices himself in order to save her from One's Demon Dragon Gabriel in the prologue. Michael is then reincarnated as Mikhail. Zero is constantly frustrated by Mikhail's childish nature, thinking that he's a poor man's substitute for Michael.

The Talos Principle: As understood by a machine. If you choose to follow Elohim's directives, the "eternal life" you are given means that your personality and puzzle progress is reset, with those aspects deemed desirable by the simulation preserved and those insufficient being randomly altered. All of the bots who left QR messages went through the same process, except Shepherd, who remained on the tower to help others ascend, and Samsara, who remained on the tower to stop others from ascending.

It's very strongly implied that Rhajat of Fire Emblem Fates and Tharja of Fire Emblem Awakening are part of the same reincarnation cycle, though exactly who reincarnates into who is unclear: Rhajat's S-Support in the Japanese version of the game hints that Tharja reincarnated into Rhajat, while her Famous Last Words, should Rhajat die, hint that she will reincarnate into Tharja. By that token, it's also hinted that there are three other cycles, though the implications aren't as explicit as the Rhajat/Tharja one: the Fates Avatar and the Awakening Avatar, Asugi and Gaius, and Caeldori and Cordelia which is kinda weird since there's a way to make Caeldori Cordelia's granddaughter.

In Pillars of Eternity, the past lives of the Watcher and several of their companions being extremely important to the characters in the present. "Awakening", where a past life's memories or even personality reasserts itself, frequently results in insanity, especially if the past life was traumatic or at odds with the present reincarnation. There's also ways to permanently remove souls from the cycle of reincarnation — undead are trapped in their bodies even as they rot and eventually turn to dust and bones, and the followers of Rymrgand, God of Entropy, seek to exit the cycle by reducing their souls to mindless soul stuff as a sort of nirvana.

Visual Novels

AIR revolves around the descendants of a samurai and a psychic (who, incidentally, also happen to be said couple reincarnated over and over) searching for the reincarnation of the one they failed to protect. However, unlike many other examples, they look nothing like their original selves.

Used in Tsukihime, where the Big Bad, Michael Roa Valdamjong hijacked the cycle of reincarnation as a means of obtaining true immortality, ensuring that his soul - with his mind and powers - is reborn into the most talented child available whenever he dies.

The White Haired Girl from The House In Fata Morgana from each time era is implied to be a reincarnation. In fact, almost every main character from the first 3 chapters is a reincarnation doomed to misery as a result of the curse Morgana placed on their souls.

Webcomics

Aleksander and Alison from My Life In Blue have been reincarnated together many times over the ages, brutally dying every time.

In Something*Positive, Silas was a minor character whose one gag (narrating things) proved insufficient to keep the creator from killing him off; he was later showed in Hell. However, eventually an "Old Familiar Faces" strip showed him alive again as a small child. He's popped up a few other times and is apparently a friend of Mike's son, Shazam. His entry on the cast page sums it up:

"He's the only person to make if off the dead cast members page and will remain so—proving that the only way to get a second lease on life in S*P is to be completely useless."

Off-White: All spirits are shades of gray, except that each species has a single White Spirit and Black Spirit to keep the balance between the other spirits. The White and Black Spirits can be reincarnated, but apparently they also can die a final death, one in which they don't rejuvenate. Apparently being eaten alive is one way for this to happen, going by what Skoll said.

In the universe of Jack, souls in Purgatory or Hell have the option of reincarnation and making another attempt for Heaven, which no one seems to want to leave for long. Though those condemned to Hell have to recognize their sins before they're allowed out, which is rather difficult given the delusions many are under and some of the punishments they are subjected to. And not everyone in Purgatory thinks a second chance is worth the risk of ending up in Hell.

Spacefaring paramilitary groups in Among The Chosen are Crazy-Prepared enough to have protocols for if a reincarnated former agent remembers working for them in a past life.

In Heartcore, reincarnation is the closest equivalent to bearing children that demonkind has. Since demons are never truly born nor do they die naturally, when they choose to renounce their life, they produce an egg that hatches into their offspring who will eventually inherit the predecessor's heartcore. Said demon offspring will also adapt traits of another demon the predecessor was close to. Thus far, the two demons known to be reincarnations are Amethyst (reincarnated from Lilium, with Royce as her father) and Carval (reincarnated from Volaster and also "fathered" by Royce).

A CreepyPasta titled "An Egg" features a man dying and meeting God, who tells him that he will be reincarnated as a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD. After some further questioning, God reveals that everyone who has ever lived and ever will live are all just different incarnations of this one person.

Smash King, This happens to nearly every character when they lose their 10 stocks/lives and die. It has been implied that some characters, like Bowser, are actually different from their previous selves over the time of being trophies and having multipel incarnations.

In the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, every time the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated. It isn't specified how many Avatars there have been, but it is implied that Aang from the original series is the latest in a long, long line of Avatars. It is also stated that if he or she is killed during the Avatar State there will be no more reincarnations. The Sequel SeriesThe Legend of Korra, stars Korra, the newest Avatar and the reincarnation of Aang. It's eventually revealed in Korra that the original Avatar was a Street Urchin named Wan. He died ten thousand years ago. Everytime the Avatar is reincarnated, they are born into whatever nation comes next in the cycle of water, earth, fire, and air, and they can and often do reincarnate as different genders.

Sometimes referenced by Hindu character Apu in episodes of The Simpsons. In one episode, as he's getting ready to hang himself, he looks at a "reincarnation chart" to see what he'll be in the next life: he was a cobra, then a tiger, then himself (little picture of Apu) and his two next incarnations will be as a tapeworm then an assistant to Lorne Michaels. "It's going to be a rough couple of lifetimes," he sighs. In a Treehouse of Horror episode parodying The Most Dangerous Game, he dies but immediately reincarnates as a rabbit.

In "The Vault", Finn discovers that the mysterious ghost woman who has been haunting him was the guilt from when his own past life, a female mercenary named Shoko, befriended and betrayed Princess Bubblegum.

In "Elementals", Pim reveals that she, Princess Bubblegum, Flame Princess and Slime Princess are all reincarnations of the Four-Element Ensemble who've been around since life began on the planet.

Transformers Prime: Supplementary material in Covenant of Primus reveal that the last member of the Thirteen, the original Primes, chose to enter the Well of AllSparks and be reincarnated as an ordinary Cybertronian. Said Cybertronian turned out to be Orion Pax. When Orion Pax was bequeathed the Matrix of Leadership, he regained his memories as one of the Thirteen, and subsequently retook his original name: Optimus Prime. Optimus chose to keep this fact to himself, and the only other 'bot aware of it is Alpha Trion, another member of the Thirteen.

The original twelve eliatropes from Wakfu are this. Unlike other demigods, with the exception of ecaflips, they reincarnate indefinitely for being the children of the Eliatrope Goddess.

Played with in a Family Guy episode where Death gets in a car accident and meets a taller Grim Reaper who tells him that he was dead and now is dead-dead meaning he gets born as a baby in China. Then he disappears, and reappears a second later. Apparently Death was incarnated as a girl.

Bobby Hill of King of the Hill may or may not be the reincarnation of a Buddhist Lama, which evidence heavily leaning towards "may". However, when he heard about the vow of celibacy he would have to take, he purposely failed his second test so he could continue to date Connie. Except he technically passed that too, but the head monk was nice enough to call it a failure for Bobby's benefit.

Real Life

Famous American general George S. Patton believed that he had been reincarnated several times prior to his "current" life. He even believed himself to be the reincarnation of the historical Hannibal.

Between ten and twenty percent of Britons with a "traditional" Western religious background (i.e. not including Hindus, Buddhists etc.) apparently believe in reincarnation. note Source:Walter, T. & Waterhouse, H. (1999) A Very Private Belief: Reincarnation in Contemporary England. Sociology of Religion 60: p188

It's been said there are more people who believe they were on the Titanic in a past life than there were actual passengers.

The Dalai Lama, who is believed to be living his fourteenth life as Tenzin Gyatso. Besides him, there were several thousands tulku (reincarnated lamas) in Himalayan regions and Mongolia.

A very famous instance of alleged reincarnation in the west is a boy named James Leininger, who's maintained that he's the reincarnation of a WWII fighter pilot named James Huston Jr. From a very early age, he could recognize small details in World War II aircraft and had recurring nightmares of being trapped in a cockpit of a plane that was shot down by the Japanese. He's probably one of the most compelling casesof someone believed to be a reincarnation, to the point of appearing in mainstream news magazine shows whose typical fare is usually not along the lines of religious or spiritual matters. Skeptics have not been convinced though.

Arguments aside, if they were convinced it was real, then they wouldn't be skeptics anymore. Skepticism's entire definition is to not be convinced of something.

Michael Ende commented on this: "If all the women I know who believe that they had been Mary Magdalene in a past life were right, you could have filled a big house with them!"

Though it's difficult to call it reincarnation, even if the self was 100% the product of the brain and after death there was nothing but oblivion, there would still remain the possibility that in the future another brain (or equivalent) would generate another self. Needless to say, in this case you'd not remember absolutely anything of your past and you could be anything but human, as there's no way to know when and/or where that would happen. In other words, even from a purely materialist perspective, the particles that make you up are reformed and will become part of another living thing.

Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, who led the Japanese fleet in the Russo-Japanese War, said "I am firmly convinced that I am the re-incarnation of Horatio Nelson." His skill as a naval commander left others convinced as well.

Brian Lumley, one of the most prominent Cthulhu Mythos writers of the post-Lovecraft period was born about nine months after H.P. Lovecraft himself died, which has prompted much half-joking speculation about his previous lives. Lumley himself doesn't take it seriously at all, though.

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